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Is There Life After Sixth Grade? is a Troll paperback which is part of the Making the Grade series. The series also includes The Terrible Truth About Third Grade by Leslie McGuire and David F. Henderson (1991),  Fourth Grade Loser by Ellen Kahaner and David F. Henderson (1991), How I Survived Fifth Grade by Megan Stine and H. William Stine (1991), and What's New in Sixth Grade? by Mindy Schanback (1991).

This book tells the story of Amy, an outspoken, individualistic sixth grader who sometimes has a hard time following school policies with which she disagrees. When she refuses to wear a white shirt and dark skirt for the yearbook photo, and is therefore banned from being in it, Amy decides to channel her frustration into a project. She starts her own, alternative yearbook, designed to portray school life as it really is. Things go well for a while - one of Amy's teachers even agrees to supervise the project - but when the administration hears of it, they are none too pleased. Will Amy be in trouble once again, or will she survive to begin seventh grade?

Based on the cover of this book, there is no question that it was published in the early 90's. The oversized pink tee shirt hanging off of one shoulder, and the skirt worn with leggings and boots look like they walked right out of an episode of Kids Incorporated, or possibly Saved By the Bell. I don't see much of that style of dress on kids today.

The story inside the book, though, is not particularly dated. There were just a few little things here and there that hinted that this is not a 21st century story.

• Amy refers both to camera film and her Instamatic camera. Kids today would probably just snap photos on their phones.
• On page 68, there is some discussion of hairstyling that refers to the style of the time, including electric curlers, hair spray and gel. I think kids would know what these are, but I'm not convinced they use them to style their hair on a daily basis. 
• The design of the yearbook also seems somewhat primitive by today's standards. We have Photoshop, Publisher, and other computer software that make publishing much easier, but the kids in this book lay out their pages on paper and copy them on a Xerox machine.

These details don't totally change the story, though. Kids growing up right now could still figure out what was going on, and appreciate the overall plot.

There were a few things that did sort of spoil the story for me, however. For one thing, Amy's dad is depicted as pretty irrational. Amy gets in trouble for dressing her own way at school, and his reaction is to threaten to send her to boarding school. I feel like that's a stereotype of evil parents borrowed from the movies or TV that didn't really feel authentic in this particular story. I also took note of  the way the middle portion of the book seemed to leap over huge gaps in time in just a few sentences. Amy gets the idea for the alternative yearbook, and just a few pages later, the whole thing has come together. That caught me off guard, and I didn't feel like I really caught my breath before the end of the story.

Leslie McGuire had already been writing and publishing for ten years when Is There

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